“They’re Doing Something With Blade”: Why Marvel’s Blade Movie Has Been DOA For 10 Years

In Hollywood, there is no shortage of projects that never materialized. While many of those are small projects that the masses may have never heard of, there are large, eagerly anticipated projects that held fan excitement and hope — often for years — only to never actually make it to the screen. It’s a unique sort of disappointment and, unfortunately, one that Marvel fans know all too well. Blade has been a sore point for Marvel fans for years. Back in 2019, fans were thrilled when it was announced that not only was a Blade reboot headed to the MCU, but that Mahershala Ali had been cast to play the titular antihero. Now, seven years later that film is pretty much dead.

But while the MCU Blade seems to be over only seven years later, forward motion on a new iteration of Blade has been stalled for a lot longer — ten years, in fact. Back in 2016, Underworld star Kate Beckinsale revealed at 2016 New York City Comic-Con that there had, at one time, been discussions about a Blade/Underworld crossover. It’s something that both fans and Beckinsale would have been very interested in, but as Beckinsale noted at the time “We had that idea. [Marvel] said ‘no…’ They’re doing something with Blade.” Well, a decade later, it seems no one is doing anything with Blade. So, what went wrong?

Even If Plans Fell Through, Marvel Did Have Other Things in Mind for Blade

To get an idea of why a Blade/Underworld crossover feels as much like the one that got away as the MCU Blade reboot does, we have to go back in time a bit to the early 2000s. It was a good time for vampires on screen, with the original Blade trilogy starring Wesley Snipes as the titular character a big deal at the movies after the first film’s release in 1998 and its subsequent sequels — Blade II and Blade: Trinity — in 2002 and 2004. The Underworld franchise was also starting off, with the first Underworld film debuting in 2003 and followed by Evolution in 2006 and several more after that (the most recent being 2016’s Blood Wars).  Of course, the two franchises had more in common than bloodsuckers, however. Both Underworld and Blade were a little dark, a little gritty, and while one can argue that Underworld was more slick while Blade more gory, the two universes lined up well. It would have been a very cool crossover.

It’s also a crossover that probably would have been wildly successful, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an idea that Marvel wanted to follow. There were a few things at play when it came to Blade that stood in the way of a crossover. The first is Blade’s expiration date, if you will. As Underworld’s franchise was heating up, Blade’s was cooling down and Snipes had exited the role after Trinity, which had a contentious behind-the-scenes situation (Snipes even sued New Line Cinema, writer-director David Goyer, and Toby Emmerich, executive producer of the film.) By 2006, Goyer tried to continue the Blade story with Blade: The Series, featuring Sticky Fingaz as Blade, but it only lasted for one season. Given the issues with Blade, collaboration on an Underworld crossover probably wouldn’t have been on top of anyone’s priority list.

However, the ending of the Blade franchise at the same time Underworld was rising isn’t the only reason that crossover never happened. The film rights to Blade also played a role. New Line Cinema produced the Blade movies, but in 2011, the rights to Blade the character officially reverted to Marvel Studios. This might be the development that truly changed everything because with Marvel Studios having the character rights back, it meant that the studio could do their own thing with the character — and they started work on that. There was work on a script as early as 2013 and discussions with Ali about the role started in 2016. While the Blade film announcement in 2019 felt shocking and like a massive surprise, it’s something that had actually been going on in the background for a long time.

Once the MCU Took Off And There Was a Chance for Marvel to Regain Blade, a Blade/Underworld Crossover Was Never Going To Happen

So, what happened to the Blade/Underworld crossover? It’s something that was likely never going to happen and was just a fun idea and something nice to dream about. With the MCU kicking off in 2008 and Marvel Studios likely aware that rights for Blade would revert to them at some point in the future, it’s most likely that Marvel never really took any real plans for Blade seriously until around 2013 — when they could center their energy and efforts around Blade on his own. Add to that the idea that as the MCU was rising, Underworld as a franchise was starting to wane a bit, with Underworld: Rise of the Lycans being panned by critics and it makes sense that Marvel would want to “do something” with Blade on their own terms.

Unfortunately, we’re still waiting on that something. As of October 22, 2024, Blade has been pulled from the release calendar and Ali is no longer attached to the role. Ali has in fact moved on, starring in Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, a film he was able to parlay his Blade preparation into. In 2016, Marvel had plans for Blade. Maybe they still do. We just hope to see them — any of them — one day.

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